Burn Like The Sun
by SquirrelWho
Summary: Everyone's memory is a mess, but Rose remembered the beach. She remembered the Doctor leaving. Only, what if that's not what happened? What if she was the one who stopped the reality bomb? What if the Doctor thought she died? What if, years later, he found out she survived, but she was trapped? Can he save her from herself or will he find her only to lose her again?
1. Revelations

This story will most likely be updated slowly, every couple days like, because I've got to wrap up some others, but I wanted to test the waters because this one is going to be a bit AU, a bit more than my others because events that happened a certain way happen differently, some very differently, not exactly the way they were remembered. It's also the first story I've added Clara to.

Oh, and River's in this a bit because of where it starts, probably not any River after so if you don't like her, read that bit quickly like pulling off a bandaid. :)

It starts toward the end of The Name Of The Doctor then goes back a bit, so here's where things go a bit...different...

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The Doctor's entire body burned as his timeline collapsed and there was Clara. Clever Clara getting ready to sacrifice herself for him…again. To save him…again. His impossible girl, the girl Rose foretold about or had she created Clara? He never did figure that bit out.

Only this was original Clara and she was about to rip herself apart. Destroy herself as so many others had done. As Rose had done.

"No," he cried out, but his voice came out barely above a whisper, filtered through the pain.

She glanced at him then and smiled.

"Run you clever boy…and remember me," she said, repeating those fateful words.

The last words his beloved uttered before she burned like the sun, saving him for a second time. A tear escaped his eye as Clara dove into him, into his time stream. Then she was gone and just like that everything was healed. Jenny was back, Vastra was there, and Strax returned with his memory, well, what memory he had before.

"It was an unprovoked and violent attack, but that's no excuse," Strax insisted as the Doctor listened with his back to them from the other side of what was once the TARDIS control room.

"We're all restored. That's all that matters now," Vastra said.

Hearing Clara say those words, Rose's last words, tore open that wound, the one her death left behind, the wound that would never heal, the one that caused him to regenerate into the man he was. The man who forgot, but this time, this time he wasn't going to forget. This time another voice ran through his mind, the voice of the man he'd once been. _Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives! _

Slowly, he turned around and eyed Vastra.

"We are not all restored," he replied.

"You can't go in there. It's your own time stream, for God's sake," the River hologram that was more than a hologram insisted.

He was the only one who could see the River hologram and like all the other times he pretended she wasn't there. Pretended he couldn't see her.

"I have to get her back," he replied.

"Of course, but not like this."

"But how?" Jenny asked.

"Is she still alive? It killed Doctor Simeon," Vastra inquired in disbelief.

"Clara's got one advantage over the Great Intelligence," he replied.

"Which is?"

"Me."

"Doctor, please listen to me," River insisted. "At least hear me."

He glanced down sadly, trying to ignore River.

"Now, if I don't come back, and I might not-"

"Doctor!" River yelled.

"Go to the TARDIS. The fast return protocols should be on. She'll take you home, then shut herself down."

"There has to be another way." River stepped toward him, but he continued to ignore her. "Use the TARDIS, use something. Save her, yes, but for God's sake be sensible."

River tried to slap him, knowing that it probably wouldn't even work, but she was shocked when he caught her arm. She gazed at him in surprise.

"How are you even doing that? I'm not really here," she gasped.

"You are always here to me…and I always listen, and I can always see you," he replied.

She was his wife. A marriage he'd been forced into and although she never replaced Rose in his hearts, because no one ever could, he allowed her to get a bit closer than the others. He had to in order to make her care enough to do what had to be done, but it made it harder to lose her. River could never be Rose, but she was River, his best friend's daughter, his last tie to little Amelia.

"Then why didn't you speak to me?"

He glanced away sadly.

"Because I thought it would hurt too much."

"I believe I could have coped."

"No, I thought it would hurt me. And I was right."

River could see it then. How alone he was. How lost. Even with Clara he was lost. Guilt welled up in her chest.

"I'm sorry," she said.

He gave her a sad smile.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, River."

"Oh, but I do." He gave her a quizzical look and she sighed. "I'm in the largest library in the universe. I know why you were drawn to Clara. It was the words, the last words _she_ spoke to you. I…I think she's alive."

The Doctor knew who River was referring to. Rose. Rose was alive?

"What?" the word came out in a whisper as a sliver of hope, hope that he hadn't felt in a very long time, pierced his hearts.

"Doctor," River swallowed, knowing that this would be goodbye, but also knowing that he needed _her_. "There's a creature on an isolated planet in the Dundra system, a creature that can't ever die, a creature that burns like the sun."

His eyes narrowed. She knew? How long had she known? Why didn't she tell him right away?

"River, River why didn't you tell me before?"

She could see the anger in his eyes and she felt the guilt over keeping it from him, but how could she tell him when telling him meant losing him?

"I…I know how you feel about her. That's here too. And I…I wasn't ready to lose you, not yet."

He gazed into her eyes and saw the fear there. Then he sighed.

"Oh, River," he kissed her then, kissed her goodbye, because that's what this was and for the first time in a long time happiness welled within his hearts because Rose, his Rose, was alive. Then he stepped back and glanced at Vastra, Jenny, and Strax who were looking at him strangely. "Since nobody else in this room can see you, God knows how that looked." He gazed into her eyes, cupping her cheeks. "There is a time to live and a time to sleep. You are an echo, River. Like Clara. Like all of us in the end. My fault, I know, but you should've faded by now."

"It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye."

She was his last tie to Amy. Knowing that Rose was alive made it easier, but he'd never been good at goodbyes. He sighed.

"Then tell me because I don't know. How do I say it?"

"There's only one way I'd accept. If you ever loved me, say it like you're going to come back."

He gave her a sad smile. She was River and she was Amy and Rory and everyone he ever lost and never said goodbye to. He pulled himself together and stepped back, eyeing her as he'd done so many times when she popped in and out of his life.

"Well, then. See you around, Professor River Song," he said.

"Till the next time, Doctor," she replied, a bit flirty, as she always had.

"Don't wait up."

"Oh, there's one more thing."

He gave her a sad laugh.

"Isn't there always?"

"I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead, then how can I still be here?"

"Okay, how?"

"Spoilers. Goodbye, sweetie," she said and with that she vanished.

The Doctor stood there for a moment. River was gone, but Rose…Rose was alive. A smile crept over his face as he turned around and eyed his time stream. He clapped his hands, readying himself.

"Today is a good day. Do you know why?" he asked, glancing at Vastra.

"No, Doctor, why?" she inquired.

"Because today…just this once, everybody lives," he replied and then stepped into his own time stream.

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Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

**Reviews are always welcome.**


	2. Journey's End - What Really Happened

Because we all know how lonely first chapter are. :)

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Rose found her Doctor again, after two long years, but the stars were going out, all of reality was threatened so their reunion was short lived. They found the Earth and the other planets the Daleks hid, but before they could do anything they were taken aboard the Crucible where Rose met Davros. The creator of the Daleks.

Davros demonstrated the reality bomb, a horrific weapon that atomized anything in its path. Donna was trapped in a burning TARDIS and everyone else was capture. Jack, Mickey, Jackie. Then the TARDIS returned with another Doctor, an exact copy, but Davros trapped him too and when Donna tried to help she was shot.

It looked like this time the universe wouldn't be saved, but Donna surprised them all when, instead of dying, she was transformed into the Doctor Donna, half human, half Time Lord. She released them and stopped the Daleks, then with the help of both Doctors, the original and the new one, they started sending the planets back where they belonged. Rose couldn't help grinning at all three of them, but they were interrupted when the red Dalek entered the vaults and shot at them. Jack destroyed the Dalek, but not before it shot the magnetron that they were using to send the planets back.

"Oh, we've lost the magnetron," the Doctor said. "And there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one." He glanced from Donna to the meta-crisis. "But we can use the TARDIS."

He raced into the TARDIS.

"Holding Earth stability," the new Doctor said. "Maintaining atmospheric shell."

He glanced at Rose with a grin she returned, after all he looked just like the Doctor, was a part of him and a part of Donna.

"The prophecy must complete," Caan insisted.

Rose glanced at the un-encased Dalek. She remembered him from Canary Wharf, from the time she was separated from the Doctor. He escaped and fell through time. Now, he was more than half mad.

"Don't listen to him," Davros yelled.

"I have seen the end of everything Dalek and you must make it happen, Doctor."

"He's right," the New Doctor said, drawing Rose's immediate attention.

"No, he's not!" she insisted, running over to him, much to her mum's annoyance.

The New Doctor eyed her.

"With or without the Reality bomb this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped."

"But you can't do that. The Doctor would never do that."

"Just…just wait for the Doctor," Donna said.

"I am the Doctor," he replied, eyeing Rose.

She had to do something. Yes, the Daleks needed to be stopped, he was right about that, but if he was anything like the Doctor then this was him lashing out in anger and later he'd regret it. That regret would eat away at him. So, she grabbed him and pulled him away from the controls.

"I won't let you do this," she snapped.

"I'm the Doctor," he insisted.

"Good on you, now-" but that's as far as she got because in the next moment someone shot him, he collapsed and she spun around to find two other Daleks descending into the vaults.

"Noooo!" Caan screamed. "The prophecy must be fulfilled!"

"What happened?" the Doctor yelled racing out of the TARDIS toward Rose and the New Doctor who was lying on the floor, unmoving.

Jack shot one of the Daleks then his gun jammed and in the next moment he was thrown across the room by the force of the blast that struck him. Mickey pulled Jackie out of the way as a blast was shot their way.

"Rose," the Doctor said, reaching her and grabbing her shoulders as he gazed into her eyes. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, 's you…him…I think he's…" she began, but couldn't bring herself to say it.

The Doctor glanced around the room. She was all right, that's all that mattered.

"You lot, in the TARDIS," he yelled, but then he realized how futile that was. They were trapped, all of them, even Donna, behind a useless console that was sparking from being shot numerous times. He caught Rose's gaze again. "I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry."

She felt it then, the power of the Time Vortex. It was in her, always in her, but remained dormant until it was needed, which was now. To save him. To save her Doctor. She was Rose Tyler and the Bad Wolf. She gave him a sad smile because she knew what she had to do.

"Me too," she replied and that's when he noticed that her eyes were different, gold and beginning to glow.

"Rose…what…what's happening to you?" he asked, but he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind a nagging feeling was growing stronger.

"I want them safe," she said, all their friends vanished from the Crucible as she sent them back into the TARDIS. The doors closed to keep them inside. She glanced at the meta-crisis. "All of them."

The New Doctor's eyes snapped open and he took in a ragged breath and then sat up. He glanced from the Doctor to her, his eyes widening as he took in her eyes.

"Rose," the New Doctor gasped. "What…what…"

"Safe," she said and he vanished to reappear inside the TARDIS.

A Dalek fired at them, but she quickly turned around and held her hand out, stopping the creature.

"IT IS AN ABOMINATION," One of the Daleks said. "EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE."

She stopped the Daleks from firing, but she could see the truth in the New Doctor's words. They needed to be destroyed or they would fly across the universe wrecking havoc, destroying civilizations. She couldn't let that happen.

"Rose, come on, come inside the TARDIS," the Doctor implored her, trying to pull her with him, but she refused to move.

"I can't," she insisted.

He made the decision without another thought because he couldn't lose her again. He almost told her once and it was as true now as it had been then. He was in love with Rose Tyler, mad, impulsive, compassionate Rose Tyler. It nearly destroyed him to lose her the first time, he couldn't go through that again.

"Then I'm staying with you," he said.

"You can't, you have to save them, all of them," she insisted.

"Rose, please," he begged.

"I have to stop them and you have to go. There's so much waiting for you." It was all there in her mind, but her head was starting to hurt, she kept the pain from showing, but things were beginning to jumble, all that knowledge, it was too much. "There's River and your impossible girl and Amelia and the cracks."

"I don't care about that," he said, cupping her cheeks and resting his forehead against hers. Oh, how much he wanted to kiss her, but he couldn't bring himself to cross that line, even now. "Come with me, please, just…just let them go."

"Run," she whispered, repeating the first word he said to her, "Run you clever boy...and remember me," and then he was in the TARDIS.

Rose turned to the Daleks then, to Davros, to a giggling Caan and raised her hand. In the next moment everything Dalek began turning to dust.

The Doctor banged on the TARDIS doors, trying to get them to open. Jackie crossed the room toward him, purposely.

"Where is she? Where is my Rose?" she demanded. "Doctor! Where is she?"

He didn't look at her, he couldn't. A sob finally escaped and he slid down the door and sat there with his knees bent and his head in his hands. There were tears, but he didn't care because she was gone, not just gone, dead. Even if she somehow survived destroying the Daleks she would burn, her mind would burn.

Jackie turned from the broken man, her hand on her mouth as she shook her head, knowing, but not wanting to believe that her daughter, her Rose was dead. Mickey was there then, hugging her and they cried uncontrollably.

Sarah Jane let out a sad sob, leaning against Jack as tears escaped the immortal man's eyes. Rosie was gone and the Doctor was broken, completely broken. He'd go on, of course, the Doctor always went on, but he'd never be the same, hell, Jack wouldn't be the same. He pulled in a ragged breath and sighed.

The New Doctor watched all of that, his own emotions threatening to pull him under, but he wouldn't allow it. There was only him and Donna to get Earth back, to save everyone and that's what they did.

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The Crucible began to atomize all around her. Her mind felt like it was burning from the inside out, but she couldn't stop, not until it was finished. Then she was falling, falling through time and space. Falling for seconds and eons and during that time she finally let go of the Bad Wolf. That's when the darkness took her.

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Standard Disclaimer.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers!

**Reviews are always welcome. :)**


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